56 



HISTORY OF HEEEFORD CATTLE 



"In your review of Sussex you say the Sussex 

 are not so broad and heavy in the shoulder as 

 the Herefords, but whether this is a fault will 

 admit of argument. I wish you would give me 

 what appeared to you as such, but I can con- 

 ceive none. Mr. Ellman is plainly of my opin- 

 ion by the rules given you. Speaking of the 

 joints as particular in a Herefordshire ox, you 

 say great breadth before; you ought to have 

 added behind also. No ox, I am sure, will pass 



PALMER'S COURT, HOLMER, OCCUPIED BY JOHN 

 HEWER, 1848-1850. 



for a good one in Herefordshire which has not 

 good hind quarters as well as good fore ones." 



(ft 49) COPY OF QUERIES ANENT FEEDING 

 CATTLE ON POTATOES, with the answers which 

 were written to them, published in the "Annals 

 of Agriculture." 



As Mr. Campbell's answers will not be ex- 

 actly to the same terms he will beg to promise 

 that he is satisfied beyond a doubt (though 

 aware the contrary is the established custom) 

 that the weight of an ox can be no rule to judge 

 by as to the quantity of food he will require to 

 make him fat, or how much of it he will con- 

 sume in a day; nothing being easier than to 

 choose two oxen (of even the same breed) of 

 equal weight that would require very different 

 quantities of the same food to make them fat, 

 and would also consume very different quanti- 

 ties of it in a day, still greater difference if 

 chosen from different breeds. A large ox, hav- 

 ing more lean flesh, will, to be sure, allow, with 

 propriety, of being carried to a greater degree 

 of fatness than the ox that has not so much 

 lean flesh to put with it. But the time and the 

 quantity of any food required to make any 

 beast fat does, in Mr. C.'s opinion, depend 

 largely upon the thriving disposition (easily 

 known by the view and handling) and not in 

 the least on his weight. 



Query 1st. What quantity of potatoes on 

 an average may be sufficient to fat an ox of any 

 good weight, suppose 100 stone (1,400 pounds)? 



Mr. C. is of opinion that about 100 bushels 

 of potatoes, with a little hay added to or given 

 between every meal of them, amounting on the 

 whole, while consuming the 100 bushels of po- 

 tatoes, to about 7 cwt., would be sufficient to 

 complete the fattening of any ox that was a 

 tolerable good thriver. 



Query 2nd. How many in a day, how often, 

 any preparation or cutting 2 



Cattle generally take to the eating of potatoes 

 as readily as any other food, but some will de- 

 cline them for a few days, but if they take to 

 them directly, they should be allowed but small 

 quantities at first and increased by degrees to 

 any quantity they will come to eat with appe- 

 tite, always intermixing the dry food and regu- 

 lating that by the effect the potatoes are ob- 

 served to have; that is, if the cattle become very 

 lax, to increase the proportion of dry food until 

 that alters again. Mr. Campbell, being of opin- 

 ion that the more an ox can be brought to eat 

 (with appetite) in a day, the sooner he will be- 

 come fat, and consequently the cheaper and 

 with more profit, never puts them to allowance. 

 but thinks, when feeding altogether on potatoes 

 (with only a drying quantity of hay), the aver- 

 age daily consumption per ox would be about 

 one bushel, though many could be brought to 

 eat one bushel and a half, some even two bush- 

 els some days. With potatoes, as with every 

 other sort of food, it will be supposed that any 

 one ox will vary much in the quantity he eats 

 on different days. Reckoning the potatoes and 

 accompaniment of hay as one meal there ought 

 to be at least five servings. Perhaps when the 

 days are the shortest there may hardly be time 

 for so many, but they should be multiplied as 

 the days grow longer. Mr. C. always begins 

 with a very little hay; small quantities at the 

 intermediate meals, but ends at night with as 

 much as they will be supposed inclined to eat, 

 not having any potatoes with them at night, 

 lest (though very unlikely to happen) any 

 might stick in their throats. 



Mr. C. never has any cut, except when an ox 

 at first rejects them, a few to coax him to eat 

 them. If they have much dirt sticking to them 

 they are washed by putting them in a long 

 trough under a pump or run of water and rat- 

 tling them about wjth a birch broom or some 

 such operation to clear them from gross dirt, 

 but that can very seldom be necessary. They 

 are stored in oblong pits in the dry ground, 

 as nigh hand the place where they are to be 

 used as may be, and with care not to let wet 



